Short, interesting Brian Sabean Q & A about the Giants’ future

If you rip ’em, you show up to talk and listen to them. That’s what I was taught in Philadelphia by columnist Rich Hofmann years ago and that’s what I always try to do.

If you rip somebody, you give them a chance to explain or yell at you or ignore you if they choose at the next best opportunity… that’s the only fair way to do it.

So I made sure I was there at this afternoon’s Giants news conference to introduce Dave Roberts, Rich Aurilia and Bengie Molina and I made sure I saw and talked to Brian Sabean, who, you might have noticed, I’ve strafed and slashed for his Barry Bonds signing and various recent, ridiculously bad manuevers.

Sabean was professional, as always. He answered my questions–some rather pointed, as you might guess–and those of the other reporters who gathered around him after the official news conference.

I didn’t fire off every leading, acerbic question I had. I thought I might, but there are only so many times I can bang my head against the $15.5-million Barry Bonds Phantasm and this time we let Brian alone on the issue.

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We’ll get back to it, though. No doubt about that.

Here’s a partial transcript and some of my fatuous… err, I mean famous flash analysis…

QUESTION: Last time we asked you about finalizing the Bonds deal was Monday. Anything new? Is it about done? (Not my question!)

SABEAN: Nothing new since Monday. Same old same old.

QUESTION: You said Monday that you thought maybe by the end of the week for Barry’s deal? Is that not the case any more?

SABEAN: Um… it’s been slower than I expected.

QUESTION: Has he had his physical yet?

SABEAN: No.

—My flash analysis:Gee, think there’s any chance–any chance in the world–that Barry is for the billionth time showing the Giants who’s boss by casually delaying the necessary physical in LA, just because he’s Barry? And he already forced them to allow it to occur in LA in the first place, so now he’s just being mean–mean plus $15.5 million richer?

Nawwwww. Never! Not Barry! That’d be a terrible way to show how he’s turned into such a team player and team guy and team-team-team… at 42.

QUESTION:Do you realistically need to sign a starting pitcher in free-agency or would it be a luxury to sign a starter?

SABEAN: I think it’s both–I think we have to, and it would be a luxury.

At this point, obviously losing (Jason) Schmidt, and even though we have young pitching that we’re really high on, we’ll be as aggressive as we can in the market, which we are now.

The Giants need a major starter, though I doubt they’ll come close to Barry Zito or even Jeff Suppan. I’m thinking Jeff Weaver or somebody like that, and he’ll get 30 starts… Ugh. And even with that, Brad Hennessey, Jonathan Sanchez… They’ve got to deliver.

QUESTION: Is there any move this off-season you can point to that helps this team beyond 2007? Or is everything you’ve done–which is what it looks like–strictly for 2007?

SABEAN: A little bit of both. As we found out, the free-agent waters were tough to navigate. The trade discussions have been very difficult, because they’re asking for young pitching that we don’t want to give up off the staff.

We do need to win more games than we won last year, be more competitive. So anything we did certainly was to the point where we need to rectify changing the roster from last year to this year.

There was an eye on going into the future. I’m encouraged that guys like (Kevin) Frandsen and (Todd) Linden are going to play a lot. (Eliezer) Alfonzo might figure in.

Virtually the whole pitching staff is young with the exception really of Benitez and Morris.

So it’s a little bit of both. It’s now and the future.

QUESTION: Is there a chance, after adding older players again, that you’ll just have to re-do this line-up all over again after 2007?

SABEAN: It’s possible. It’s possible. We’ll be open-minded.

QUESTION: Do you understand the criticism of your moves because nobody can see any kind of help coming in the future? Because everything seems short-term?

SABEAN: I do. I certainly understand. I think the frustrating thing is we did try in every arena to do what we set out to do, which was get younger and healthier.

It’s just that it turned out in one year, maybe all of it couldn’t be done to all of our satisfaction or more so to the fans’ satisfaction.

But you still have to field a team. You still have to put competent people out there.

And I’d be less hopeful if we didn’t have the young pitching and if we didn’t have what I would consider a lot of good outside information coming into the organization about that pitching.

–My flash analysis: That’s about as clear as Sabean can get–they got stuck this off-season. Badly, horribly stuck. I get that–once Carlos Lee, Soriano and Juan Pierre signed elsewhere, and the Giants couldn’t get Manny Ramirez, they were stuck and had to re-sign Bonds and … they think… had to give him the big bucks.But good teams don’t get stuck. They have young options. They have middle-aged options. They don’t get held hostage by an arrogant superstar who wants to bleed them for every dollar and who doesn’t always wake up in time to pinch-hit in the bottom of the ninth.Sabean needed to build a farm system EIGHT YEARS AGO. He needed to put his energy there, while Bonds was in his prime, so he could pull out the young talent when he needed it–WHICH IS NOW. (Really, it was two years ago.)But oops, Sabean needs the young talent, and he doesn’t have it, and so he needed to chase free agents–and failed–and then he needed Bonds. It was a plan… he just didn’t have to goods to pull it off.That’s the mistake. That’s the fatal mistake for 2007, and 2008…

QUESTION: So this pitching… is it ready to go this season?
SABEAN: Yes. Sanchez is certainly going to be given a chance to be a starter. Now if we sign a starter, he could end up back in the bullpen.

So this pitching… is it ready to go this season? Yes. Sanchez is certainly going to be given a chance to be a starter. Now if we sign a starter, he could end up back in the bullpen.Now if we sign a starter, he could end up back in the bullpen.

So this pitching… is it ready to go this season? Yes. Sanchez is certainly going to be given a chance to be a starter. Now if we sign a starter, he could end up back in the bullpen.Now if we sign a starter, he could end up back in the bullpen.But we saw with Cain was about last year. In a lot of ways he was our No. 1. Lowry has to have a more consistent year. And Sanchez and the guys who contributed in the bullpen like (Kevin) Correia are going to be given due consideration.

QUESTION: Could No. 1 pick Tim Lincecum be in the mix for a role?

SABEAN: Possibly… Young pitching in general is valued that way in the game right now. That’s all the talk we’re detecting in the trade department, whether it’s us or anybody else.

QUESTION: Does this team have to do better in 2007 or this is not a successful off-season?

You can’t predict what the field’s going to be. Last year I felt in some ways we were one of the favorites. And I know going into this year we won’t be. So you wonder how that dynamic will play out.

But we obviously want to turn our fortunes out, to give not only the organization hope but everybody hope.

QUESTION: Where is this team better than it was last year?

SABEAN: I think the line-up’s interesting. We haven’t had a speed guy (like Roberts).

I think this young pitching is going to be a year older. Guys like Wilson, they’ve cut their teeth as far as defining themselves further in a role, which has put him towards the end of the game, which is very interesting because that’s hard to come by.

Offensively, while the line-up’s a work in progress, interesting enough, it might be more flexible than last year’s.

Our biggest problem last year was getting a line-up on the field. I think with Frandsen and with Linden and the way Boch is going handle the roster, we’re going to be able to mix-and-match more in terms of what we could do to keep people in the mix, to keep people healthy.

Last year was a nightmare because Felipe was literally short-handed. From an overall standpoint, all these additions are more of a sure thing, I hope, in terms of having them on the field more.

–My flash analysis: Well, there it is. As advertised, not very long. But interesting. Brian is counting on Cain, Lowry, Sanchez and Wilson. That’s not exactly Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz… But oh well. That’s what he’s got. He’s also hopeful about Frandsen and Linden, but also keeps adding older player to play their positions ahead of them.

Tim Kawakami

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I’m curious to see how Eliezer Alfonzo is going to figure in Sabean’s plans, now that they’ve signed Damian Moss, in addition to Bengie Molina.

http://ronebofh.livejournal.com/ rone

“Last year was a nightmare because Felipe was literally short-handed.” What happened to Felipe’s hands???

Gary

Heh Rone – catch a clue. Moss is a pitcher.

Bruce

So you drill the Giants for not developing young players before and then you drill the Giants for going with Cain, Lowry,Sanchez,Wilson and Linden this year. You can’t develop young players unless you play them. And how many teams have Maddux,Glavine and Smoltz? none.

shoes2

I’ve had a theory Sabean for while. In his heart, I think he knows that he knows that he’s not strong at scouting players. Over time, he’s figured out the best way for him to cover up that weakness is to sign older players with a proven track record. It helps two ways: first, if he’s wrong, he can point to their past activity and say that if the player had performed as well as they did in the past, the Giants would’ve been fine; second, if he’s wrong, he’s usually only committed to a two year deal instead of a six or seven year deal, so the pain of being wrong is less.

I think we’re getting very close to that weakness finally being exposed for what it is, and getting addressed by upper management. At least, I hope so.